In the beginning of this year, I mentioned in my Nine Star Ki predictions for 2013 that a 5-Earth year bears the power of the energy of homecoming; after a nine-year cycle of movement through the nine different stages of energy in the Ba Gua, this year your birth-sign (your first Nine Star Ki number) finally returns in its home-position. This sounds great, as it is of course, but at the same time though this homecoming makes you realize that nothing is the same anymore, everything has changed. You’re not the same person anymore as you were when leaving your home-position nine years ago. So on one hand this homecoming can create a stabilizing and re-assuring movement of energy; nothing feels so good as coming home again after being on a vacation and to sleep in your own comfortable bed. It is the familiarity of your home-environment, the recognition of all the self-created details, the blind trust to know where everything is that makes you feel secure and safe, both are aspects that can be addressed to the element Earth. On the other hand this 5-Earth year forces its reality upon you that coming home after being on an ongoing journey for nine years, traveling through the different Nine Star Ki positions of the Ba Gua, makes you realize that you are not the same person anymore as you were nine years ago. Sometimes the changes that took place aren’t that significant; maybe you only bought a new car or painted the living-room or you’re thinking about changing the color of your hair. However it is also possible that you feel that you have been going through this huge and major process of transformation which resulted in a complete different mindset. A process of nine years, going through nine stages in which different theme’s and topics have challenged you to grow, to develop yourself and to learn (to know) something new. This 5-Earth year is the year in which this process consolidates into taking stock; where am I, what have I learned these past years, how can this be helpful to me, how can I bring what I’ve gained and learned into practice, and – not quite unimportant – are the conditions and circumstances under which and with whom I functioned nine years ago, still suitable to support these newly acquired aspects, skills and insights?

Form is a characteristic that also can be addressed to the element Earth, more specifically to 5-Earth. A year in which the 5-Earth element dominates the energy is therefore a year that challenges us to put yourselves into a new form of existence, or at least to re-form specific aspects of your existence. This could mean that you feel an urge, almost a necessity to find a new job for instance. Or to put a different meaning to your relationship. It can even be so that the process you went through in the past nine years has given you so many new tools to work with, that you find it necessary to change and adjust your form of existence on different levels of your life. For those who experience this, it may seem that their world is up-side-down and nothing can remain the same anymore. If this is the case, such an addition of aspects being active at the same time can have massive impact. It can create a feeling of dissociation; of self – what am I doing? – and of others – what is he/she doing? -. Mostly these big processes of change cannot be explained from a rational point of view. Rational explanation is merely possible in retrospect. So that might not be very comforting to read, since you feel the need to get answers right away. You would like to gain immediate clarity on and insight in this obvious chaos that is presenting itself around you. Most of all you might want to know which is the next step to take.

So here you are, after returning ‘home’ in the Ba Gua you just want to sit down, relax and enjoy the familiarity of this home-position. But you can’t help but noticing the flaws, the unfinished stuff, the dreams you once were chasing and the wishes you’d like to fulfill for yourself. It seems a bit ungrateful to finally return home and then start nagging about bits and pieces. But that is what the energy of a 5-Earth year is prompting to do; creating a dual aspect of experiencing oneself. To explain this a bit more, it can be helpful to take a look at traditions and automatisms versus evolution and improvement. A human being is a habitual being. On one hand this is because a human is lazy and doesn’t want to spill precious energy. On the other hand there is a lack of necessity to change things and processes that work well. ‘If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it’. Habits and traditions are also characteristic aspects of Earth energy; it is the power of conservation, of the safety of repetitive patterns. So this feeling of sticking to traditions is very present in this 5-Earth year, like the feeling you have of safety after returning to your own home. At the same time there is a need for evolution and improvement, to change things for the better or just because change is required. This may sound as a contradiction, but they actually are just the dual aspects that belong to Earth energy. You have to realize that although the earth is the most stabile factor we know, paradoxically at the same time it also travels around the sun at a speed of 29,783 km per second!

So every element in Feng Shui has these two sides to it, but this is most strongest in a 5-Earth year. So both these principles (conservation and evolution) can also be addressed to the qualities of respectively Yin and Yang, as every element has both Yin and Yang qualities to it. Yin is the archetypal feminine energy and Yang is the archetypal masculine energy. The way Yin and Yang – literally – move around each other like the tao symbol shows, is the same way that tradition and evolution (or the feminine and the masculine for that matter) are in a love-hate relationship with each other. On one hand they cannot exist without each other and they would loose there legitimate presence without each other. On the other hand they cannot stand each other for they are opposites. To be able to master this contradiction, it is necessary for both principles to transcend themselves in order to be able to connect with the other principle. Persisting in sticking to the own principle is actually facing a certain death; ruling out the opposite is ruling out the biggest aspect from which the own principle can identify itself. For example there is water and there is fire, two very opposite principles that behave a bit like cats and dogs; they can’t stand each other but at the same time there’s some interesting tension going on between them. Both water and fire are also representatives of the principles Yin (water) and Yang (fire). The characteristics of the water principle is cold, quite, dark and receptive – whereas fire is warm, active, light en dominant. Without the willingness to overcome their own limitations, both principles are capable of destroying each other. Water can extinguish the fire so that it looses its heat, light and dominance and actually is put out. Fire can bring water to boiling so that it looses its cold stillness, until it vapors and therefore looses its ability of receptivity. However, if water and fire can join forces in an equivalent way, they are capable of producing an interesting reaction as is very nicely presented by the Tarot-card ‘Art’ in the Aleister Crowley Tarot deck. Together water and fire are able to create steam. This is a very powerful principle which bears in it the qualities of both water and fire. It is a principle that cannot exist without the two major forces of water and fire joining together. To create steam however, both water and fire have to sacrifice themselves into a new state of being. This is called synergy: the interaction of multiple elements in a system to produce an effect different from or greater than the sum of their individual effects (Wikipedia). So both water and fire loose their former identity and don’t exist like that anymore. By joining forces in synergy they both are unrecognizably changed into the new form and identity of steam, something which they couldn’t have created on their own. So to be able to achieve this they both were willing to let go of their former identity. It is in a 5-Earth year that the coming together of two powerful principles of tradition and conservation versus evolution and improvement create big tensions. But it is also a year in which major breakthroughs in existing patterns and lifeforms can be established if the two opposites are willing to join forces in synergy. Not only on a larger collective scale, but also for every individual.

Like a caterpillar that is transformed into a beautiful butterfly and that is willing to change its own familiar identity into a new, glorious and free existence as a butterfly, one need to be prepared to die a little in order to be re-born again into a new form of existence. Like that the 5-Earth year can challenge you to leave the safe imprisonment of your cocoon and choose to spread your wings and fly into the liberty of spiritual freedom. So this year challenges you to be prepared to give up everything that is connected to your old form of identity that no longer serves you, or at least challenges you to bring these issues up for discussion. These are aspects of you that make you feel safe and comfortable and from which you have derived your identity up till now. Letting go of this which is no longer at service opens up new and unexpected opportunities which enables you to join forces with the new found knowledge, visions and opportunities. From this, doors to a new perception of consciousness can be opened which can take you to a new step in realization of your soul qualities. ‘If it is both terrifying and amazing then you should definitely pursue it’. The steps that need to be undertaken in these processes of change of form and identity, aren’t always very clear or distinctively visible, let alone that you can be ‘sure’ about the outcome and consequences. More so, often the steps you need to take are ambiguous or at least lack a sense of unmistakability and are rather based upon intuition then rationality. Also, where it all will take you is a big question. There might be a sense, a hunch, a rather indistinct feeling that you have to follow up on. That makes it all very exciting. In this situation however, fear can create a falling back into a state in which you are not able to follow your trust and gut instinct, but rather choose to step back to what is known and familiar. And that is exactly what will happen as a result: you will fall back (down if you like) into a previous known state of existence and consciousness. This also will take your evolutionary process back to the level which you were about to leave behind you.

To be courageous and willing enough to proceed in the unfolding process, will take you to places you haven’t explored before. It will take you to unknown territory that you cannot recognize or feel acquainted with (yet), nor will you know where this will be. It’s as starting off on an adventure not knowing where it will take you. But as every adventurer can tell you, you need some tools that guide your way, that lead your steps in the proper direction. Those tools are your heart and your ever lasting trust. Your heart will never deceive you, it doesn’t operate on a hidden agenda, it’s free of the doubts that are usually occupying your mind and it is only assessable to one principal: your soul. Your trust in the sincerity of your heart and in the capacities you have to your disposal, for instance your gut-feeling, creates a solid base to operate on and which gives you the strength to understand that, however incomprehensible the situation might seem, everything in the universe is in the right place at the right time. This trust is necessary so you can exceed the limits of your comprehension of the universe you experience in this moment. So, if your world is up-side-down don’t try to fix it and get it back into the old, familiar shape and routine; because if you continue doing what you did, you will continue getting what you’ve always got. Try to establish contact with your heart and your heart energy: put your fingers on your heart, close your eyes and breath into your heart area. Visualize a situation in which you sincerely felt your heart to be open and re-collect that feeling. Try and meditate on the Hackpen Hill cropcircle, that appeared on July 15 near Avebury in Wiltshire. This specific formation has an unprecedented quality of heart energy to it that can help you establish contact with your own heart. And most of all: be of good cheer! It’s only ego that is afraid and likes to keep you just where you are, but it is your soul that truly steers your life, maybe into a new state of existence!